Anheuser-Busch has placed a second marketing executive on a “leave of absence” due to the growing fallout of the disastrous Bud Light campaign featuring transgender Dylan Mulvaney.
Alissa Heinerscheid, Bud Light’s vice president of marketing, was the first to be put on leave by the beer brand, as Slay News reported earlier.
Now Heinerscheid’s boss, Daniel Blake, is joining her on “leave.”
According to The Wall Street Journal, Blake was ordered to take a “leave of absence” by the company.
Blake oversaw marketing for Budweiser and Bud Light and has worked at Anheuser-Busch for nine years.
Anheuser-Busch is claiming that both executives, coincidentally, “decided to take a leave of absence.”
However, the Journal is reporting that “the decision to take a leave wasn’t voluntary.”
“Given the circumstances, Alissa has decided to take a leave of absence which we support,” an Anheuser-Busch spokeswoman said.
“Daniel has also decided to take a leave of absence.”
Anheuser-Busch also said it is revamping its marketing department “so that our most senior marketers are more closely connected to every aspect of our brand’s activities.
“These steps will help us maintain focus on the things we do best: brewing great beer for all consumers, while always making a positive impact in our communities and on our country.”
According to Adage: “Alissa Heinerscheid, marketing VP for the brand since June 2022, has taken a leave of absence, the brewer confirmed, and will be replaced by Todd Allen, who was most recently global marketing VP for Budweiser.
“Alissa Heinerscheid, who has led the brand since June, takes leave of absence and is replaced by Budweiser global marketing VP Todd Allen.”
Second Bud Light marketing exec placed on leave after backlash https://t.co/LqW2RELtog pic.twitter.com/ayp5eoAYbk
— New York Post (@nypost) April 24, 2023
The link: https://t.co/9eLWTBuuTF
— Jennifer Sey (@JenniferSey) April 22, 2023
The Daily Wire reported earlier that “no one at the senior level” at Anheuser Busch was involved in the disastrous marketing campaign with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney and Bud Light.
“No one at a senior level was aware this was happening,” a source told the media outlet.
“Some low-level marketing staffer who helps manage the hundreds of influencer engagements they do must have thought it was no big deal.
“Obviously, it was, and it’s a shame because they have a well-earned reputation for just being America’s beer — not a political company. It was a mistake.”
Just before the campaign dropped, Heinerscheid boasted about her plans to make the beer brand “truly inclusive.”
“I’m a businesswoman,” she said in late March.
“I had a really clear job to do when I took over Bud Light, and it was ‘This brand is in decline, it’s been in a decline for a really long time, and if we do not attract young drinkers to come and drink this brand there will be no future for Bud Light.’
“To evolve and elevate this incredibly iconic brand we need inclusivity, it means shifting the tone, it means having a campaign that’s truly inclusive, and feels lighter and brighter and different, and appeals to women and to men.
“Representation is sort of at the heart of evolution, you have got to see people who reflect you in the work.”
“We had this hangover, I mean Bud Light had been kind of a brand of fratty, kind of out-of-touch humor, and it was really important that we had another approach,” she said.
READ MORE: DeSantis Releases Bud Light Parody Commercial Featuring ‘Men Who Hacked the System’
